Associate Professor Shahid Ullah
Associate Professor in Biostatistics
College of Medicine and Public Health
Associate Professor Shahid Ullah is a biostatistician whose methods turn complex health data into evidence for policy and clinical practice. Based in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, he brings more than 25 years of experience in statistical methodology to research in chronic disease, healthy ageing and dementia, cancer, cardiovascular and renal health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and health services research.
Shahid has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, including in The Lancet, Nature Medicine and Circulation, with 91 published since 2022 and 72 of those in Q1 journals. His work has received more than 12,000 citations (h-index 50, Google Scholar, October 2026) and has been cited in 37 policy documents across 14 countries, including WHO and NICE guidance. As a named Chief Investigator, he has secured more than $35 million in competitive funding from the MRFF, NHMRC and SA Health, including $28.7 million since 2022.
Collaborations: World Health Organization, Global Burden of Disease Study, ANZDATA Registry, SAHMRI, SA and NT health services, AstraZeneca and Diabetes SA, across more than 200 multidisciplinary projects.
Expertise: survival, longitudinal and functional data analysis; clinical trial design; epidemiological modelling and forecasting; health data science.
Shahid is MD Program Biostatistics Coordinator and previously served as Teaching Program Director for Public Health (2024–2026). He contributed to the development of the Master and Graduate Certificate in Clinical Epidemiology. He is Statistical Editor of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and First Editor of the British Journal of Nutrition. He has supervised seven PhD candidates to completion and welcomes enquiries from prospective research students and collaborators.
PhD (Applied Statistics), Monash University
MSc (Research) Statistics, University of Dhaka
BSc (Honours) Statistics, University of Dhaka
Awards
- Statistical Society of Australia President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics (2024)
- Runner-up, Kidney Health Australia Award, ANZSN Annual Scientific Meeting (2025)
Editorial and review roles
- First Editor, British Journal of Nutrition (2025–present); Statistical Editor (2022–2025)
- Statistical Editor, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2020–present)
- Grant reviewer: NHMRC Ideas Grants, MRFF and Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (international)
- Peer reviewer for 300+ manuscripts across 20+ international journals
Research funding
More than $35 million across 24 competitive grants, including $33.5 million as Chief Investigator.
Current grants (Chief Investigator)
- MRFF 2026–2031 ($2,999,691): AutoReview: smart, scalable community mental health care
- SA Department for Health and Wellbeing 2025–2032 ($7,454,974): Alcohol, Tobacco, E-cigarette and Other Drugs (ATEOD) Research and Evaluation Program
- MRFF 2025–2030 ($2,946,531): CT-iSupport: culturally tailored iSupport for dementia carers
- MRFF 2025–2028 ($2,000,000): RECOVER: embedded rehabilitation for older adults in aged care
- Flinders Foundation 2025–2027 ($23,250): Mapping ambulance response times in regional South Australia with big data
- NHMRC 2023–2028 ($1,555,078): Culturally tailored iSupport for carers of people with dementia
- MRFF 2023–2028 ($2,996,294): Equitable access to point-of-care full blood testing in remote primary health
- MRFF 2023–2027 ($3,234,182): AutoMedic: smart, scalable detection and resolution of medicine harm
- MRFF 2023–2027 ($1,459,974): EPIC-RM: exception-based remote monitoring of cardiac implantable devices
- MRFF 2024–2027 ($946,473): Power of parents: co-designed communications to reduce adolescent drinking
Completed grants (Chief Investigator, since 2020)
- MRFF 2023–2025 ($854,636): Escape the vape: preventing e-cigarette use in young people
- MRFF 2023–2025 ($599,664): Lived experience peer support for mental health in primary care
- MRFF 2023–2025 ($850,531): Social determinants of mental health for young people from refugee backgrounds
- DFAT 2023–2024 ($500,000): Embedding iSupport in routine care in Australia and Greater China
- ARIIA and partners 2022–2023 ($200,000): Embedding iSupport for Chinese carers in aged care
- MRFF 2022–2025 ($604,306): Real-time measurement in pulsed field ablation of atrial fibrillation
- MRFF 2022–2024 ($756,623): Co-designed diabetes and metabolic syndrome intervention with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on Ngarrindjeri country
- MRFF 2021–2025 ($1,334,630): Partnering with carers through iSupport to improve dementia care
- MRFF 2021–2024 ($973,119): 3D-printed facial guards to reduce P2/N95 respirator leak
- Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration 2021–2024 ($547,206): Innovative delivery of iSupport for carers
- DFAT 2020–2022 ($600,000): iSupport dementia carer education in Australia and Greater China
- Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation 2021 ($90,713): Nurse practitioner care for homeless children and families
- Teaching Program Director, Public Health (2024–2026)
- MD Program Biostatistics Coordinator and Learning Coach
- Biostatistics Coordinator, Rural and Remote Health
- Education governance: member of the Academic Senate, Course and Education Committee, Course Quality Advisory Group, Course Coordinator Committee and Public Health Leadership Team
- Chief Investigator and methodological lead on MRFF and NHMRC research programs
- HDR supervision and mentoring of early- and mid-career researchers
Shahid teaches biostatistics in a way that makes quantitative methods accessible, practical and directly relevant to clinical and public health practice. Rather than treating statistics as mathematics, he builds students’ confidence to interpret evidence, critically evaluate research and apply statistical thinking to real health problems.
He coordinates Biostatistics (PHCA2507), Introductory Biostatistics (PHCA9523) and Advanced Biostatistics (PHCA9524), taking students from foundational concepts through to advanced modelling. His teaching uses authentic datasets, problem-based learning, R programming and reproducible research, with clinically relevant case studies that connect theory to practice. He led the redesign of fully online postgraduate biostatistics topics and contributed to the development of the Master and Graduate Certificate in Clinical Epidemiology.
Shahid served as Teaching Program Director for Public Health (2024–2026) and is MD Program Biostatistics Coordinator, Learning Coach for the MD program, and Biostatistics Coordinator for Rural and Remote Health.
His teaching is consistently well regarded by students, who value his ability to make complex statistical concepts clear, practical and engaging.
Teaching interests: biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, research methods, statistical computing in R and reproducible research.
Shahid is committed to advancing the statistics profession and strengthening the use of quantitative evidence in health. He has a long record of service to the Statistical Society of Australia (SA Branch), as President (2018–2019), Vice President (2016–2017) and Council Member (2014–2015), and has been Branch President’s Representative since 2019. He received the Society’s President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics in 2024.
He contributes to research quality nationally and internationally as First Editor of the British Journal of Nutrition, Statistical Editor of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and a grant reviewer for the NHMRC, MRFF and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases. He has chaired sessions and served on scientific and organising committees for conferences including [conference names].
Shahid regularly shares statistical insights with the public through national media, including newsGP, the Herald Sun and news.com.au.
He is actively engaged with his community. He has served as President of the Dhaka University Alumni Association of South Australia since 2021, where he helps lead a community lifestyle and wellbeing program, and was previously General Secretary of the Bangladesh Australia Society of South Australia (2016–2018).
Professional memberships: Statistical Society of Australia; Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology; Bangladesh Statistical Association (life member).
- Statistics
Expert in R and Stata, with working knowledge of Python. Advocate for reproducible research workflows, which he embeds in his postgraduate biostatistics teaching.
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
South Australia | Northern Territory
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